Chapter 5

Jack’s first step as Zahra’s lawyer was a Thursday-morning videoconference with the US Department of State, Office of Children’s

Issues, the central authority charged with the implementation of the Hague Convention in the United States.

Jack was at his desk in Miami. The real-time images of two division chiefs were on his split computer screen: Cheryl Comstock,

Europe Abductions and Prevention, covering the UK; and Ben Davis, Eastern Hemisphere, covering Iran.

Jack began by sharing the key allegations in the amended petition, but Comstock interrupted. A Harvard-educated lawyer with

salt-and-pepper hair and the discerning gaze of a powerful intellect, she looked to Jack more like a federal judge than a

bureaucrat who’d spent her entire career on the ninth floor of the State Department.

“Chief Davis and I are intimately familiar with your client’s case,” said Comstock. “No need to brief us.”

“Then I’ll get right to the point,” said Jack. “I intend to file an immediate motion asking the court to dismiss Mr. Bazzi’s

petition under the Hague Convention.”

“What is the ground for dismissal?”

“Farid Bazzi is an Iranian citizen. Iran is not a signatory to the Hague Convention. There’s no basis for him to bring this

action under the convention.”

Comstock showed no reaction. “What are you asking us to do?”

“Respectfully, I want the State Department to join in my motion and support my position.”

“Is that the only purpose of this conference?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s going to be a very short one. The answer is no.”

Jack waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. “May I ask why?”

“Before a foreign parent can file a petition in US court, he is required to file an application in the country of the child’s

habitual place of residence. Mr. Bazzi filed his Hague application in the United Kingdom.”

“How?” asked Jack. “He’s Iranian.”

“Farid and his family lived in London under the UK Entrepreneur visa program. They lost their visa when his business failed,

but Farid reapplied for British citizenship for himself and his daughter.”

“Don’t you see that as a clever legal maneuver to get around the fact that he’s an Iranian citizen, with no rights under the

Hague Convention?”

“The UK accepted his Hague application. That’s their prerogative. As far as the US State Department is concerned, that’s the

end of the story.”

Jack was not so naive as to think that politics didn’t play a role. “I’m betting there’s much more to it.”

“We don’t care to hear your speculation, Mr. Swyteck.”

“Let me ask you this. I’ve been told that the State Department helped Mr. Bazzi find my client in Miami. Is that true?”

Jack was only half bluffing, having heard no specifics about the Bazzi case, but his mandatory Hague training had opened his

eyes to the State Department’s role in tracking down abused mothers accused of abducting their own children.

“I can’t comment on this specific case, but that is an accommodation this office sometimes provides.”

“Is it also true that you helped find Mr. Bazzi a new lawyer to file the amended petition?”

“Again, I can’t comment on specific cases.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Mr. Swyteck, just so you understand—the State Department takes a neutral position in suits under the Hague Convention.”

“Neutral? It says right on your website that the State Department is ‘a leader in US government efforts to prevent international parent child abduction.’”

Comstock remained composed, but her voice took on an edge. “Yes, and it can’t be any other way. If the US fails to return

children to a foreign country, then parents in the US will have a hard time getting their children back when they are abducted

and taken abroad. Surely you can understand that.”

Jack did. But he was also getting a taste of how, behind the scenes, the State Department stacked the deck against the abducting

parent—even when she was an abused spouse. The original purpose of his call was a lost cause, but he needed to know how firmly

the State Department was in Farid’s camp.

“I want you to be aware that, as part of my client’s case, I intend to prove that Farid Bazzi is an abuser,” Jack said. “He

was abusive to both Zahra Bazzi and her sister, Ava, before she disappeared.”

Comstock showed no reaction, but Jack’s words drew obvious concern from the division chief for the Eastern Hemisphere. Davis

was a former US marine with the haircut of an enlisted man and the no-nonsense demeanor of a career officer.

“Let me offer you some friendly advice on that point,” said Davis. “Perhaps friendlier than it would be if you were not Governor

Swyteck’s son.”

“I’m listening.”

“Ava Bazzi disappeared at a very low point in US-Iranian relations.”

“That sounds like a very sanitized way of saying that she was one of over five hundred Iranians who were killed or disappeared

for voicing their opposition to the hijab laws.”

Davis continued, unfazed by Jack’s point. “Since then, the State Department and the Iranian government have made important diplomatic advances. The most obvious was the disbanding of the clerical police. But there are other issues on the table being negotiated, not all related to human rights. In fact, there are very important negotiations underway at this very moment, which we are of course unable to discuss with you.”

“What are you telling me?”

“The official position of the Iranian government is that Ava Bazzi escaped from jail in Tehran, fled the country, and is now

living in the West.”

“What is the State Department’s position?” asked Jack.

“The State Department has never taken an official position.”

“That’s shameful.”

“Your opinion is not germane to my point.”

“What is your point?”

“Given the active and delicate diplomatic negotiations currently at stake here, right now would be a very inopportune time

to resurrect the question of whether Ava Bazzi was among those killed by the clerical police.”

Jack was taken aback. “Are you asking me to present my client’s case in a way that does not conflict with the official position

of the Iranian government?”

“No,” said Davis. “I’m simply pointing out that what happened to Ava Bazzi during her marriage to Farid Bazzi is one thing.

What happened to her after she was arrested by the clerical police is quite another. If you were to try to inject the latter

into your case, it would be... shall we say, unfortunate.”

It was eerily reminiscent of the threat from Jack’s attacker: If you make this case about what happened to Ava, someone is going to get hurt . Jack had promised Zahra not to involve the police, but he had to call out this “coincidence.”

“This doesn’t sit well,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“Last night I hired a bodyguard to keep my client safe. Some thug put a knife to my throat and threatened me. Now I’m hearing

the exact same message from the State Department.”

“I hardly see the parallel,” said Davis. “But I can assure you that we had nothing to do with any threats or thuggery.”

It was a little like talking to Andie; or perhaps it was proof of Andie’s point. Really, Jack? A federal conspiracy under every rock?

“I’ll accept that,” said Jack. “But let me be clear: I’m going to prove whatever I damn well need to prove to keep my client

and her daughter together.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” said Davis.

“At the risk of sounding like an echo”—Jack deliberately used the director’s own words—“your opinion is not germane.”

He said goodbye and, with the click of a mouse, ended the videoconference.